Did Nawaz Sharif Know ?

Crossing the Line of Control and taking over Kargil in India was a plan implemented by the Pakistani Superman Musharraf. There have been various versions of stories on if the Democratically elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was aware of these plans. Nawaz Sharif has always maintained that he neve knew about it and was shocked when the Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee called him to ask what was going on. Now the temporary Pakistani Prime Minister Shujjat Hussain has said that Nawaz Sharif was in the loop.

Debunking former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s claim that he was kept in the dark on the Kargil operations by army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani Premier Shujjat Hussain has said that Sharif had not only given the go ahead for the incursions but also wanted to wrest Srinagar.

“I was present there. It was Nawaz Sharif’s desire to reach Srinagar. People should keep one face. Sharif has kept a dual face,” Hussain, who was interior minister in the Sharif government, told Aaj Tak.[Rediff]

There are reasons to believe that Sharif did not know about it. For example in his trial after Gen. Musharraf took over, the ex-Prime Minister complained that the “ill-planned and ill-conceived operation was kept so secret that the Prime Minister, some Corps Commanders and the Chief of Navy and Air Force were kept in the dark”.
On June 11, the Indian Govt. released two tapes of the conversation between Gen. Musharraf and Lt. General Mohammed Aziz in which it was evident that the Prime Minister was not involved.
But Pakistani Army officers maintain that the Kargil operation was first mentioned to Sharif in a meeting that took place in an ISI office in Lahore in February 1999 and the Prime Minister granted formal approval in the second week of March at a meeting held in the ISI headquarters in Islamabad. But according to eyewitness reports, there was only a mention of increasing militant activity and not an incursion across the border.
According to Owen Bennet Jones in his book, Pakistan, the Army probably told Sharif something, but not in detail. The Army thought that the operation would remain as a small border skirmish and not get into a full blown war. In this context, the new revelation by a puppet prime minister of Musharraf that Sharif wanted to wrest Srinagar seems unbelievable. [Information adapted from Pakistan]